Throughout last year, I heard the Yahooze song by Olu Maintain everywhere I went. Everybody was singing the song and doing the dance. I should have written about this a while ago but never got round to it. I came across a couple of websites that provide information about the "Nigerian Scam". A lot of these websites such as Nigeria, The 419 Coalition Website, Scambusters, Scamorama are devoted to exposing Nigerians as fraudsters. One of them even claims that the Nigerian government is on it and makes money from it since it's the 3rd largest industry in the country. Akin to Nevada and Casinos or Norway and fishing.
Nigeria has such a bad name that we've become like Italians and the Mafia. Not all Italians are mobsters/mafioso but just tell anyone you are from Sicily and they begin to shake in your presence. Which brings me to my problem with Yahooze.
Someone sings a song about scamming people out of their money and giving Nigeria a bad image and we all sing along? He goes on to glamorise the lifestyle of scam artists and we all throw fingers in the air. Come on! I've heard the argument that he doesn't condone it. He's only singing about it. I never heard a single line in the song where he talks about where 419ers end up, the damage done to victims and the bashing of Nigeria's image. He talks about it quite positively. And don't even get me started by telling me it's all satirical. If I sang a song about molesting young children would you say "he's just joking". Or if I sang a song about murdering the President, you don't think the Secret Service would knock on my door the following day? I don't care about the lyrics you say? It's still a nice song. Excerpts below from a song by So Solid Crew called 21 seconds. Note the lyrics in bold
"Some of dem are a slippin ah Some of dem begrudge me ah So Solid vampire See me on the telly ha Face gettin' popular, ha what? Some are chat ya nah No disrespect when I bus in my clique ya nah Raise up the dead an' ah Worship the devil Red is my best colour So Solid we are players, instigators Gimme a girl I'll make her famous I send her back to you she gettin' papers 21 seconds to get papers"
Here's a "good" song with a catchy beat that was popular a few years back. Would you sing a song about worshipping the devil?! Not surprised since we all sang "Why Me" by Dbanj. An excerpt of that song's lyrics are shown below
"i dont know how to say this but this girl drives me crazy cause i cruise in town with a mercedes so she said she wanna have my baby, first when i met her, she said koko master come test her, we could do it ones, twice maybe better, wanna test my skills so i let her, yes so i let her, so sexy so tempting, so pretty contemplating, how to get her love me now, make she get a taste of my heart, took her to my crib now, in my drop top, took her top off, body was a jump off, started on the floor now, to the bed now, hands on the wall, devil was the bomb now. she wouldnt leave me alone always calling my phone, feele ahh she no gree"
Singing about one night stands, promiscuity and now 419 seems to have become a national pastime. When your kids sing these songs what do you tell them?
Or maybe we all think 419 victims deserve their fate. After all, they're greedy people who should know better. If you've ever been harrassed at any airport for holding a green passport, or been asked a stupid question about Nigeria then you'll know that we all need to rid ourselves of this evil.
If a foreigner hears you listening to Yahooze and asks you what the song's about, what will you tell him? "Oh it's about scamming people out of money. You know we are all scammers in Nigeria. So much that Yahooze is now our national antherm". The foreigner asks, "so you think it's funny that people lose millions to these scammers?" What do you say? They deserve to be scammed?
We have enough problems with our image already so let's not promote things that further entrench the image of a fraudulent country.
Let's stop and think for a minute before we enjoy music just for the good tunes and beats.
PS: Just remembered this Youtube video I saw a while back of the EFCC busting some scammeers. Good to see something being done to address this scourge.
Nigeria has such a bad name that we've become like Italians and the Mafia. Not all Italians are mobsters/mafioso but just tell anyone you are from Sicily and they begin to shake in your presence. Which brings me to my problem with Yahooze.
Someone sings a song about scamming people out of their money and giving Nigeria a bad image and we all sing along? He goes on to glamorise the lifestyle of scam artists and we all throw fingers in the air. Come on! I've heard the argument that he doesn't condone it. He's only singing about it. I never heard a single line in the song where he talks about where 419ers end up, the damage done to victims and the bashing of Nigeria's image. He talks about it quite positively. And don't even get me started by telling me it's all satirical. If I sang a song about molesting young children would you say "he's just joking". Or if I sang a song about murdering the President, you don't think the Secret Service would knock on my door the following day? I don't care about the lyrics you say? It's still a nice song. Excerpts below from a song by So Solid Crew called 21 seconds. Note the lyrics in bold
"Some of dem are a slippin ah Some of dem begrudge me ah So Solid vampire See me on the telly ha Face gettin' popular, ha what? Some are chat ya nah No disrespect when I bus in my clique ya nah Raise up the dead an' ah Worship the devil Red is my best colour So Solid we are players, instigators Gimme a girl I'll make her famous I send her back to you she gettin' papers 21 seconds to get papers"
Here's a "good" song with a catchy beat that was popular a few years back. Would you sing a song about worshipping the devil?! Not surprised since we all sang "Why Me" by Dbanj. An excerpt of that song's lyrics are shown below
"i dont know how to say this but this girl drives me crazy cause i cruise in town with a mercedes so she said she wanna have my baby, first when i met her, she said koko master come test her, we could do it ones, twice maybe better, wanna test my skills so i let her, yes so i let her, so sexy so tempting, so pretty contemplating, how to get her love me now, make she get a taste of my heart, took her to my crib now, in my drop top, took her top off, body was a jump off, started on the floor now, to the bed now, hands on the wall, devil was the bomb now. she wouldnt leave me alone always calling my phone, feele ahh she no gree"
Singing about one night stands, promiscuity and now 419 seems to have become a national pastime. When your kids sing these songs what do you tell them?
Or maybe we all think 419 victims deserve their fate. After all, they're greedy people who should know better. If you've ever been harrassed at any airport for holding a green passport, or been asked a stupid question about Nigeria then you'll know that we all need to rid ourselves of this evil.
If a foreigner hears you listening to Yahooze and asks you what the song's about, what will you tell him? "Oh it's about scamming people out of money. You know we are all scammers in Nigeria. So much that Yahooze is now our national antherm". The foreigner asks, "so you think it's funny that people lose millions to these scammers?" What do you say? They deserve to be scammed?
We have enough problems with our image already so let's not promote things that further entrench the image of a fraudulent country.
Let's stop and think for a minute before we enjoy music just for the good tunes and beats.
PS: Just remembered this Youtube video I saw a while back of the EFCC busting some scammeers. Good to see something being done to address this scourge.
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